New research shows the wireless data and entertainment industry is neglecting its most willing market segments: women and young adults.
“Females and young consumers have a significantly higher propensity to adopt most mobile interactive services and advanced handset features,” wrote research and consulting firm Zelos Group in its new “U.S. Wireless Services User Survey.”
The report, obtained exclusively by RCR Wireless News, shows that women and teenagers are interested in and inclined to pay for wireless data services like ring tones, text messaging and downloadable games. The findings could significantly affect the market’s current laser-like focus on young men and business professionals.
“While purveyors of mobile entertainment aggressively target males with pitches for downloadable games and other interactive services, women are a more viable target market,” the firm wrote.
Wireless players are familiar with such miscalculations. During the technology boom of the late 1990s, most in the wireless industry predicted the enterprise market would lead the way in data adoption. Forecasters expected executives and business professionals to jump at the chance for wireless access to corporate e-mail and other information. However, the recent economic downturn all but snuffed out the wireless enterprise industry, leaving consumers to head up the push for wireless data and entertainment. And though the market is still miniscule compared with wireless voice offerings, revenues from ring tones, text messaging and downloadable games typically outstrip earnings from wireless enterprise products.
Although most wireless data services are geared toward both men and women of almost any age-like the downloadable version of the popular game Tetris-a significant number are focused on standard American male interests like sports and warfare. For example, Sorrent Inc. has almost exclusively based its business around sports games, and NuvoStudios’ new “Ninja Tower” allows players to battle (what else?) ninjas. Although some wireless players have enjoyed significant successes with the approach, Zelos Group said the market’s largest untapped audience sits elsewhere.
According to the firm’s survey, 28 percent of female respondents played games on their phones while only 17 percent of male respondents did. Further, 13 percent of female respondents said they have paid to download a ring tone while only 8 percent of males said they have. The firm also found younger wireless users are more willing to pay for data services, bringing into question the industry’s longtime sales efforts aimed at aging business executives. Zelos Group said less than 2 percent of respondents over 45 years old have wirelessly accessed news and information on their handsets, compared with an industry average of 8 percent.
Zelos Group’s survey also covered hot topics including picture messaging, push-to-talk services and instant messaging. The firm found interest in picture messaging has actually decreased during the past year despite major advertising campaigns featuring camera phones and picture-messaging services. According to the firm’s survey, 12 percent of respondents indicated strong interest in picture messaging, while almost 20 percent of respondents in a similar survey last year said they are very interested in picture messaging.
“This fall-off in interest happened over a period when the installed base of camera phones grew substantially and may indicate that actual experience with use of these services was less positive compared to how they were promoted,” the firm wrote.
Picture messaging was introduced in the United States about two years ago, and to date, no U.S. carrier allows its subscribers to send picture messages to subscribers of rival carriers.
As for the industry’s much-lauded PTT introductions, Zelos Group found significant levels of interest in the service, but also some confusion over what the firm called “some level of noise” in the market. Zelos Group found 40 percent of respondents expressed some level of interest in PTT, and 18 percent said they are very interested in the service. However, the firm found that 4 percent of respondents with Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. service claimed to use PTT devices-despite the fact that neither carrier offers PTT.
Finally, Zelos Group found a distinct lack of interest in wireless instant messaging, in spite of recent service launches and promotions by the likes of Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless. Three percent of respondents said they use wireless IM services at least once a week, and only 9 percent said they are very interested in using wireless IM. Almost two-thirds, or 66 percent, of respondents said they do not use wireless IM and “have no interest” in doing so.
Zelos Group surveyed 1,000 wireless subscribers in March and compared the responses to a similar survey conducted in July 2003. The survey covered men and women ages 18 to 65 and older.
